If there was a technological zodiac, 2010 would have been the year of the I-pad and the Smartphone. In contrast 2011 would probably have been the year of social media. Bloggers and activists have had a crucial impact on events around the world and a host of businesses and social media start-ups have now started to grow teeth and get serious. Consider the Arab Spring or student uprisings all over Europe for example and the rise of companies like Group-On. For an overview of this (with stats and pictures) see Jeff bull's blog "10 Things You Must Know about the State of Social Media in 2011" or also David Olson's blog post "Top Ten Global Development Communications Stories of 2011" here.

 

A lot attention has gone towards ideas like crowdsourcing. Much has happened in the world of crowdsourcing including ideas for how it will impact on education. This article from Reuters in December 2011 explains how some new start-up companies are looking to make money by tapping teachers' hands-on experience for what works in the classroom. Crowdsourcing is likely to have an big impact on education, take for example this TED talk on crowdsourcing the development of a global human syllabus for learning online. For a general overview particularly of some of the involvement of the private sector in 2011 check out "How the Internet Revolutionised Education in 2011" here or this crowdsourcing industry infographic.

 

The crowdsourcing industry (or at least Enterprise Crowdsourcing) has blasted off and new global companies are tapping into social media and marketing. Many of these start-ups actually date back a few years now but are beginning to 'come of age' and crowdsourcing for one is becoming an industry whether people like it or not. This graph from Mark Swaeffer's blog shows that the market demand for crowd-sourced work quintupled in 2010 & almost quadrupled in 2011.

 

 

In 2011 commercial and public interest in mobile technology and in tablet devices has grown exponentially. This has also occured in the field of development and ICT and all kinds of applications for mobile technology for increasing the accountability of public services in developing countries are sprouting up. A recent example are services to check the authenticity of drugs at point of sale in Africa (see this article by the Economist "Mobile Services in Poor Countries - Not Just Talk"

 

In 2011 the Indian Ministry for Human Resource Development has announced the launch of a new low cost ($35) educational tablet: the Aakash. The government of Thailand is also introducing a similar tablet at secondary level. Governments have difficulty however, as these investments (for example read here about tablets in Thailand) are often quite controversial.

 

UNESCO is finding new ways of bringing attention to this and of helping ideas to bloom in this area by partnering with Nokia and the Pearson Foundation and has created the EFA Crowdsourcing Challenge. This challenge allows participants to submit innovative ideas on subjects such as how mobile technology can strengthen literacy, entries are judged on their potential for social impact and real educational value and are put into a competition for a cash prize (if you wish to participate entries must be submitted by May 31, 2012).

 

UNESCO in December 2011 importantly held an International Experts Meeting and Symposium on Mobile Learning. The presentations from this event are available here and the leaflet is here. This meeting seeks to some degree to bridge this gap in national and international policies that have been designed in the 'pre mobile' era and is an initial exploratory step towards achieving this.

 

With so much diversity in this field we might expect some totally new approaches using new technology. Some interesting examples of practices in this field include the UNESCO mobile literacy project in Pakistan (the project of Ichiro Mayazama whose paper is here) or the text to teach project in the Philippines. For more information see the UNESCO report from 2005 on mobile learning and resources from the Bangkok office here.

 

Also for a retrospective on ICT for development, take a look back at what Richard Hawkins wrote about 2010 here for the World Bank. Rickard Hawkins has also taken a look at financing and international cooperation in this area by asking what role education should play in donor ICT strategies. Currently, the World Bank Group is consulting with external and internal stakeholders to refine and strengthen its ICT strategy. It is developing a new ICT Sector strategy that better incorporates ICT’s transformational power. It will include a cross-sectoral approach that focuses on three pillars: innovate, connect and transform

 

Events to watch out for in 2012:

In October 2012 the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning, mLearn will push further the theory and practice of learning and mobility in converging technological environments. For more information also see the website of The International Association for Mobile Learning (IAmLearn) which has a link to presentations and resources from over the last 10 years

 

Of course the WSIS Forum 2012 which will take place in May in Geneva:) and the Learning Without Frontiers event in London (Jan 25th and 26th) which is here.

 

Please feel free to add to this list any events you think would be worth checking out - and have a wonderful 2012 - with all the exciting things that it will bring!